After many weeks of inactivity, I finally got a chance to sit down and crank out code for a while. As a result, there have been tons of MAJOR changes/features added in Beats 1.6b. Here’s just half of the changes: full .dwi support experimental .osu support save local high scores use Immersion’s Universal Haptic Layer (UHL) for vibration control translation project public at http://crowdin.net/project/beats added Screenshot Mode setting see the changelog for more The long promised .dwi support is finally here and complete (as far as my testing has gone at least). SM->osu! Mod has been done back in 1.5b, …

For my ESE 350 ”Microcontrollers and Embedded Systems” (University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2011) final project, I worked with my friend Eric Chen on modifying Beats so it would take input from an XBOX Kinect. The result is a Kinect hooked up to a Beagleboard-xM running Android and playing Beats. It was all proof-of-concept of course as everything ran with extreme lag, but it was pretty cool nevertheless and fun! (Direct download) Proof-of-concept gameplay demo of Beats 1.5.5b with Microsoft XBOX Kinect support. The song used in this demo is “Chaoz Impact” by ParagonX9, stepfile by Lisek with permission for distribution …

Due to a busy school and job-finding schedule, I haven’t had much time to work on any of the stuff in my huge To-Do List. The Beats user-base, however, has proven to be very eager in seeing the progress of this project and many individuals have actually helped me with translating Beats into other languages. Turns out, for example, the top four countries in terms of user base are USA (34%), South Korea (22%), China (21%), and Japan (6%) despite having no official Android Market in either China or Korea and no translations for any of the latter three. In …

For my CIS 350 ”Software Design/Engineering” (University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2011) final project, we were to work together as teams to create a mobile app as a hands-on exercise with the software development cycle. And so, Team MAGi (consisting of Art Young, Austin Woodlin, Jessica Ouyang, Yash Kandoi and myself) decided to make a game, specifically one inspired by the free 2D fixed shooter game, Warning Forever. The WF clone more or less was a bullet hell (danmaku) with a simple “evolving” AI boss after each level but with no level cap (after lvl 10, it repeats), so we called …

Due to some Google policies, Beats has been re-released under a new package name (now ‘com.beatsportable.beats‘ – its the same app, just a different Market download). (or manually download the .apk from the Release page) Please uninstall previous versions of Beats (aka 1.5b or earlier) and install the new package (just search for “keripo”, “advanced rhythm game”, “stepmania”, “ddr”, or “osu”). The donate version has also been removed – please use the Donate page if you wish to express thanks and help keep development rolling! Because the Android Market will treat 1.5.2b as a new app, all previous ratings and …

After tons of work into adding new features and optimizing to reduce/remove lag and increase framerate, Beats 1.5b is finally ready! Beats 1.5b has TONS of new features, as described in the Changelog. Some of the most important features include: osu! Mod and scroll up game modes various new tapbox layouts much, MUCH faster now and with less lag (even faster than 1.3b!) lots of nifty shortcut buttons on the main menu Russian, Dutch, and Italian translations (looking for translators, see here) Not sure what this new “osu! Mod” game mode is all about? Check it out in the new …

Small update with a fix for the rotate-reset issue as well as a link to the new gameplay video: Beats 1.4.2b – Changeset [237] – fixed a rotation-restart issue – gameplay video link in Info settings category And here’s the new gameplay video! (The Demo page now links to this video while the Tutorial page links to the old tutorial video.) (Direct download) As always, if you find any other pressing/immediate bugs or would like to help out with testing (particularly the lag and touch-screen issues some users are reporting), please PLEASE contact me (Keripo) via IRC or MSN (see …

There were tons of positive feedback on Beats 1.4b as well as numerous requests and suggestions for a new release. While we are already working on the next major release (Beats 1.5b), here’s a small update with a few minor fixes and tweaks that were most demanded based on Beats 1.4b feedback: Beats 1.4.1b – Changeset [233] – orientation-based main menu layout – re-added adjustable Accuracy Level setting – reverted accuracy weightings to 1.3b’s scheme – fixed multi-touch install restriction? – fixed minor notetype parsing issue – fixed a few odd crashes With Beats 1.4.1b, the installation/disappearing-from-the-Market issue some users …